Opinion of the Court. The same principles have been asserted by this court in cases arising since the act of March 3, 1875; as in County of Greene v. Daniel, 102 U. S. 187, 195; in United States v. Schurz, 102 U. S. 378, 393; in Davenport v. County of Dodge, 105 U. S. 237, 242, 243; and in Louisiana v. Jumel, 107 U. S. 711, 727. But now it is contended for the plaintiff in error that the Circuit Court can obtain jurisdiction of these cases by their removal under § 2 of the act of 1875. It was evidently though that the Circuit Court would have no original cognizance of them, if commenced in that court, for they were not brought in that court, although in the petition for removal in each proceeding the plaintiff states that he was a citizen of New York when it was commenced, and in the petition for removal in the first proceeding he states that Bauer was at its commencement a citizen of California, the defendant in the second proceeding being, when it was brought, a municipal corporation of California. The proceedings were evidently instituted with the purpose of removing them, for the petitions for removal were severally filed by the plaintiff three days and ten days after process was served on the defendant, and nothing was done in the state court but to file a complaint, and tỏ serve á summons, and to take proceedings for a removal. To maintain the jurisdiction by removal, it is contended that that jurisdiction does not depend on the original jurisdiction of the Circuit Court; that the former may exist without the latter; and that in the present case it does exist. The only possible ground of jurisdiction in the present cases, is diversity of citizenship; for the right of action claimed does not arise under the Constitution or a law or treaty of the. United States. It exists, if at all, under a statute of the state. The state is not alleged to have passed any law imparing the obligation of any contract of which the plaintiff claims the benefit, or to have deprived him of any right secured to him by the Constitution of the United States. In respect to jurisdiction by citizenship, as applicable to this case, § 1 of the act of 1875, in regard to original jurisdiction, and § 2, in regard to jurisdiction by removal, describe the subject-matter of the suit Opinion of the Court. in terms which are the same legally. In § 1, the suit of which "original cognizance" is given is a suit "of a civil nature, at common law or in equity," where the matter in dispute exceeds, exclusive of costs, the sum or value of $500, and "in which there shall be a controversy between citizens of different states." In § 2 the language is identical, except that the suit is to be a suit "of a civil nature, at law or in equity." In § 11 of the act of 1789, the original cognizance given to the Circuit Courts was of "all suits of a civil nature, at common law or in equity," where the matter in dispute exceeds, cxclusive of costs, the sum or value of $500, and "the suit is between a citizen of the state where the suit is brought and a citizen of another state." In § 12 of that act, jurisdiction by removal was given to the Circuit Courts of a like suit. Now, if, as has always been held," original cognizance," under § 11 of the act of 1789, did not exist, of proceedings like those before us, founded on citizenship, it must necessarily follow that original cognizance cannot exist, under § 1 of the act of 1875, of such a proceeding, founded on citizenship. If so, it is impossible to see how, with legally identical language in § 2 with that in § 1, jurisdiction by removal can exist, under § 2 of the act of 1875, of proceedings like those before us, founded on citizenship. This view is entirely aside from the principle which has controlled in some cases, where a restriction as to original jurisdiction, contained in other provisions of § 11 of the act of 1789, did not exist in § 12 of that act, in regard to jurisdiction by removal, or in other removal statutes. Of that character was the restriction in § 11 on the right of an assignee of a chose in action to sue if the suit could not have been prosecuted in the court had the assignment not been made; as illustrated by the cases cited by the plaintiff in error, of City of Lexington v. Butler, 14 Wall. 282, and Claflin v. Commonwealth Ins. Co., 110 U. S. 81. In Gaines v. Fuentes, 92 U. S. 10, an application for removal was sustained under the local prejudice act of March 2, 1867, 14 Stat. 558, of a suit to annul a will, on the ground that the act, in authorizing the removal, invested the Federal court by that fact with all needed jurisdiction to adjudicate the case.. Opinion of the Court. But that case was not one of a mandamus, to which the implied restriction of the statute in respect to that writ was applicable. The same remark may be made as to Boom Company v. Patterson, 98 U. S. 403, where the removed proceeding was one to condemn lands for the use of a boom company; and as to Hess v. Reynolds, 113 U. S. 73, where the removal was of a proceeding in a Probate Court to obtain payment of a claim against the estate of a deceased person; and as to Bliven v. New England Screw Co., 3 Blatchford, 111, and Barney v. Globe Bank, 5 Blatchford, 107, where foreign corporations successfully maintained jurisdiction by removal, in ordinary suits, although they could not have been compulsorily brought into the Circuit Court, by original process. As this court, while § 11 and 12 of the act of 1789 were in force, and § 14 of that act was also in force, always held, even where the requisite diversity of citizenship existed, that the restriction of § 14 operated to prevent original cognizance by a Circuit Court, under § 11, of a proceeding by mandamus not necessary for the exercise of a jurisdiction which had previously otherwise attached, so, with §§ 1 and 2 of the act of 1875 in force at the same time with § 716 of the Revised Statutes, the restriction of § 716 must operate to prevent cognizance by removal, by a Circuit Court, under § 2 of the act of 1875, even where the requisite diversity of citizenship exists, of a like proceeding by mandamus. As was said by this court, speaking by Mr. Justice Miller, in Hess v. Reynolds, 113 U. S. 73, 79, 80, the language of the repealing clause of the act of 1875, is, "that all acts and parts of acts in conflict with the provisions of this act are hereby repealed," and the statute to be repealed must be in conflict with the act of 1875, or that effect does not follow. There is nothing in § 2, or any other part of the act of 1875, which is in conflict with, or has the effect to abolish, the restriction of § 716, just as there was nothing in § 11 or § 12, or any other part of the act of 1789, which was in conflict with, or had the effect to abolish, the restriction of § 14 of that act. These cases fall directly within the provision of § 5 of the act of 1875, that if, in any suit removed from a state court Dissenting Opinion: Bradley, J., Harlan, J., Matthews, J. to a Circuit Court of the United States, it shall appear to the satisfaction of said Circuit Court, at any time after such suit has been brought or removed thereto, that such suit does not really and substantially involve a dispute or controversy properly "within the jurisdiction" of said Circuit Court, the said Circuit Court shall proceed no further therein, but shall dismiss the suit or remand it to the court from which it was removed, as justice may require. What is meant by the expression "within the jurisdiction"? It means, within the judicial cognizance within the capacity to determine the merits of the dispute or controversy, and to grant the relief asked for. The provision does not give countenance to the idea that the suit or proceeding is to be retained in the Circuit Court till brought to a formal adjudication on the merits, when, at that ultimate stage, the court must say that the case is not within its jurisdiction, after the party successfully challenging the juris diction has been harassed by expense and injured by delay. But it means what it says, that the dismissal or remanding "shall" be made whenever, "at any time" after the suit is brought or removed to the Circuit Court, it shall appear to the satisfaction of that court that there is, really and substantially, no dispute or controversy of which it has jurisdiction, in the sense above pointed out; the right to have a review by this court of the order dismissing or remanding the suit, being given to the aggrieved party at once, instead of his being compelled to await the making of such an order at the end of a full and formal hearing or trial, on issues and, proofs, on the merits alleged on either side. Orders affirmed. MR. JUSTICE BRADLEY, with whom concurred MR. JUSTICE HARLAN and MR. JUSTICE MATTHEWS, dissenting. MR. JUSTICE HARLAN and MR. JUSTICE MATTHEWS agree with me in dissenting from the judgment of the court in this case. It is a constitutional right of the citizens of the several states having controversies with the citizens of other states, to have a national forum in which such controversies may be liti Dissenting Opinion: Bradley, J., Harlan, J., Matthews, J. gated. It was one of the declared purposes of the Constitution, that the judicial power of the United States should extend to certain cases enumerated, one of which was, "to controversies between citizens of different states;" and it was declared that this power should be vested in one Supreme Court, and in such inferior courts as the Congress might from time to time ordain and establish; thus making it the duty of Congress to establish such tribunals. If Congress fails in this constitutional duty, the citizens have no redress but the ballot-box. But Congress has not failed. It has established the requisite tribunals, and has invested them with the powers necessary to give the citizens their constitutional rights. Or, if it has failed in any respect, either with regard to persons or causes, we think it has not failed in respect to the class of cases to which the present belong. Congress, by the act of March 3, 1875, passed to determine the jurisdiction of the Circuit Courts, has declared that they shall have original cognizance, concurrent with the courts of the several states, amongst other things, of all suits of a civil nature at common law or in equity, involving over five hundred dollars, in which there shall be a controversy between citizens of different states; and that any such suit brought in any state court may be removed by either party into the Circuit Court for the proper district. This jurisdiction should be liberally construed so as to give full effect, as far as may be, to the constitutional right, as presumably within the intent of Congress. The terms "suite at common law and in equity," or "suits at law and in equity" (which is the same thing), are, in themselves, of the most general character and of the broadest signification; and this court ought not, by its decisions, to restrict their application. It is not meant by the expression "suits at common law," to confine the jurisdiction of the Circuit Courts to the old technical actions of trespass, trover, trespass on the case, debt, detinue, assumpsit, &c., but it extends to and includes any form of proceeding of a civil nature in which a legal right cognizable by the courts of common law is sought to be judicially enforced, by whatever name, under the new-fangled nomenclature adopted by the different states, the proceeding |